By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Thirty-six hours after an attempted car bombing forced the evacuation of Times Square, life on West 45th Street was returning to normal Monday morning.
“I’m not scared,” said Modou Diop, a Senegalese handbag vendor. “I’ve been in Times Square for a long time. I’ve seen lots of things. I’m not scared at all.”
Diop was selling pocketbooks Saturday night at 45th Street and Seventh Avenue when he heard a “puff” and noticed black smoke coming from a Nissan Pathfinder SUV parked across the street.
Diop's fellow vendors notified police, who quickly evacuated the area and defused the bomb.
The car was packed with enough propane, gasoline, fireworks and a makeshift timer to do significant damage if it had successfully exploded, police said. Police and the FBI are now investigating who was behind the attack.
By Monday morning, little hint of the threat remained.
Umbrella-wielding businessmen streamed through Times Square, passing the corner of 45th and Seventh without giving it a second glance. Tourists lined up at souvenir shops on 45th Street to buy T-shirts and postcards. And vendors said the rain, not the car bomb, was dampening their sales.
“I’m not worried,” said Gopal Debnath, manager at the Times Square Trix souvenir shop on 45th Street. “It was one time.”
Dr. Sarah Weitzul, who was in New York for a dermatology conference, said the bomb attempt would not deter her from returning to the city.
“It could happen anywhere,” Weitzul said as she waited for a cab outside the Marriott Marquis on 45th Street. “Still, I’ll be glad to get home. It was a little freaky with all the police around.”
Weitzul, who is from Dallas, was not allowed into her room at the Marriott until 3 a.m. Sunday, and she said police questioned her later in the day.
Many shop and restaurant owners near 45th Street reported a slight drop in sales Sunday and Monday. A manager at John’s Pizzeria on W. 44th Street said a party of 115 people from New Hampshire cancelled a dinner planned for Sunday after the scare.
Mayor Bloomberg told reporters Monday afternoon that people should expect to see more NYPD officers than usual in Times Square, but “Things are okay.”
“It’s a sick and despicable act, but New Yorkers are going about their normal activities," Bloomberg said. “We’re not going to be scared, we’re not going to be cowed, and as long as we have the best first responders and the cooperation we need from the federal government we are going to be a safe city and we’re going to go about our lives normally."
